(VNF) - The Yen Tu Spring Festival officially kicked off on February 6^th, the 10^th day of the first lunar month, at the Yen Tu historical site in Uong Bi city, the northern province of Quang Ninh.

Scene at the festival. (Photo: VNA)

The festival will feature a range of activities, including traditional rituals and folk games.

According to the festival management board, the Yen Tu historical site welcomed 136,000 visitors during the first six days of the lunar month, up three per cent over the same period last year.

The number of visitors to the site is expected to hit two million during this year’s festival.

Visitors offer incense and pray for health, prosperity and happiness at Dong Pagoda in Yen Tu historical site. (Photo: phamhongquy98)

Yen Tu Mountain is located about 50 kilometres from Ha Long City. The pilgrimage route, which winds from the foot of the mountain to its pinnacle, is almost 30 kilometres. Dong Pagoda, which sits atop the mountain’s highest peak, is more than a kilometre above sea level.

The area has a beautiful natural landscape and awe-inspiring scenery, along with surrounding ancient pagodas and hermitages. (Photo: febboy272)

The pilgrimage route, which winds from the foot of the mountain to its pinnacle, is almost 30 kilometres. Dong Pagoda, which sits atop the mountain’s highest peak, is more than a kilometre above sea level.

The roads to Yen Tu are already packed with pilgrims and tourists, who are eager to greet the start of the festival today. This has led to traffic jams on several sections of the routes leading to Yen Tu Mountain and Hoa Yen Pagoda, where part of the festival is being held.

In the 13^th century, King-Monk Tran Nhan Tong (1258-1308), the third king of the Tran dynasty, abdicated the throne when he was 35 and spent the rest of his life on Yen Tu Mountain, practising and propagating Buddhism. He founded the first Vietnamese School of Buddhism called “Thien Tong” or Truc Lam Yen Tu Zen on the 1,068m-high Yen Tu Mountain. The 20,000ha site is considered the capital of Vietnamese Buddhism.

Besides numerous temples, it also preserves many old religious and cultural documents such as precious prayer-books and monks’ writings.

With its significant historical, cultural and natural values, Yen Tu was officially listed as a special national relic site on September 27^th, 2012, and has be declared one of the 10 most attractive spiritual destinations in Vietnam by the Vietnam Records Organisation./.

( Compiled by Minh Phuong )